History of Canberra
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The History of Canberra details the development of the city of Canberra from the time before white settlement to Canberra's planning by the Chicago architect Walter Burley Griffin and subsequent development to the present day.
Contents |
[edit] Pre-history
Before European settlement, the area which eventually become the Australian Capital Territory was inhabited by the Ngunnawal and Walgalu tribes. The Ngarigo lived south-east of the ACT, the Gundungurra to the north, the Yuin on the coast and the Wiradjuri to the west. Archaeological evidence suggests human habitation of the area for at least 21,000 years.
The Ngunnawal had at least two burial grounds, a northern limestone cave and a cave in what is now known as Mt Tennant. At least in some cases, dead aboriginals were buried in a sitting position.
The Bogong Moths were an important source of food for the Aboriginal people, which would collect in their thousands in caves and rock crevices; they were roasted in sand or ashes and eaten whole.
[edit] 19th century
[edit] European exploration
European exploration began in the Canberra area as early as the 1820s. Four successive expeditions whose routes took in the Canberra area were those of Charles Throsby Smith (1820), Charles Throsby (1821), Major John Ovens and Captain Mark Currie (1823) and Allan Cunningham (1824). All four expeditions explored the area of the Molonglo River that is now Lake Burley Griffin. Smith and Cunningham also went further south to what is now called the Tuggeranong Valley.
[edit] European settlement
White settlement in the area can be said to have begun in 1824, when a homestead or station was built in what is now the Acton peninsula by stockmen employed by Joshua John Moore. He formally purchased the site in 1826, but never visited the site. Moore named his property Canberry, or Canberra. The name Canberra, as well as several derivatives, continued to see some use throughout the 19th century to refer to what is now North Canberra. The local Aboriginals of this time also tended to refer to themselves as the Kamberra or Camberri people.
Other stations were built in turn by other settlers. Initially, these were owned by absentee landlords, but later families moved in. The first white child born in the area was a daughter born to the Macpherson family in 1830.
There were a number of these families that achieved status in the area. These included the Campbell family, the Ainslie family and the Palmer family. In the late 1820s and early 1830s, there was a conflict between two of these families - the Johnstons (descended from Major George Johnston who was involved in the Rum Rebellion) and the Martins - for the ownership and financial control of land which is now known as Weston Creek and Tuggeranong.
The Campbells, and their patriarch, Robert Campbell, were particularly influential. The Campbells were Scottish and brought many other Scots to the district as workers. The land that they owned included Duntroon House that is now the Officers Mess at the Royal Military College, Duntroon, Yarralumla and the Oaks Estate. The lattermost got its name from a mansion built there by Campbell called the Oaks. When the Campbell family later sold the land it was on for subdivision and development, it was on condition that the Oaks and the land that it to remain intact and not be renamed. There are still members of the Campbell family living in Canberra.
The European population in the Canberra area continued to slowly grow throughout the rest of the 19th century. One prominent building, the Anglican St John's Church, was consecrated and opened for use in 1845. This building still stands today. A schoolhouse was also attached to this building. By 1851, there were about 2500 people living in the area - a vast majority of which were stockmen. Some convict labour was also used in this area in the 1830s and 1840s. The weather in the area was said to be harsh, and drownings in rivers was a fairly common occurrence. Victims of drowning included the first rector of the St John's Church.
Blundells' Cottage was built by the in 1859 for William Ginn the head ploughman for the Duntroon Estate. The cottage's second occupants where newlyweds George and Flora Blundell, after whom the cottage was named.[1]
The Aboriginal population dwindled as the European presence increased, mainly from diseases such as smallpox and measles. Another reason was that their ability to hunt and therefore survive was impeded by homesteads being placed on their hunting grounds. By 1862, they had been largely reduced to half-castes. They held their last full corroboree by the Molonglo River in that year. By 1878, the Aboriginal culture and population had largely ceased to exist, with its members largely absorbed into European culture through half-caste marriages. "Queen Nellie" Hamilton, said to be the last full-blood Aboriginal in the Canberra region, died in Queanbeyan in 1897.
[edit] Twentieth century
[edit] Creation of the Australian Capital Territory
The district's change from a New South Wales rural area to the national capital began during debates over Federation in the early 20th century. At the time, Melbourne was easily Australia's largest city and the obvious place for the capital. The western colonies—Western Australia, South Australia and Victoria—supported Melbourne. However, NSW (the largest colony) and (to a lesser extent) Queensland, favoured Sydney—which was older than Melbourne and the only other large city in Australia. Perhaps one or another of the two colonial capitals might have eventually been acceptable to the smaller states, but the Sydney-Melbourne rivalry was such that neither city would ever agree to the other one becoming capital.
Eventually, a compromise was reached: Melbourne would be the capital on a temporary basis while a new capital was built somewhere between Sydney and Melbourne. Section 125 of the Constitution specified that it must be north of the Murray River (placing it in NSW rather than Victoria) but at least 100 miles from Sydney.
After an extensive search, the present site, about 300 kilometres south-west of Sydney in the foothills of the Australian Alps, was chosen in 1908 as a result of survey work done by Government Surveyor Charles Scrivener in that year[1]. Two persons who campaigned strongly for the Federal capital to be in the Canberra area were John Gale, the publisher of the Queanbeyan Age and Federal politician King O'Malley. The choice of site was a disputed one, and narrowly beat Dalgety, a small town near the NSW/Victoria border.
The NSW government ceded the new Australian Capital Territory to the Commonwealth Government on January 1, 1910[2]. In that same year, the ACT became an alcohol-free area as a result of legislation that the Minister for Home Affairs King O'Malley ran through Federal Parliament in Melbourne (Ironically, a pub named after King O'Malley was established in the city centre of Canberra during the 1990s).
[edit] The name Canberra
An international competition was held in 1911 by O'Malley to select a plan for the new city. A variety of names were suggested for the capital, including Olympus, Paradise, Captain Cook, Shakespeare, Kangaremu, Eucalypta and Myola. The name of Canberra was eventually settled upon. At midday on March 12, 1913 the city was officially given this name by Lady Denman the wife of the then Governor-General, at a ceremony on Kurrajong Hill (now known as Capital Hill) and building officially commenced. The city now commemorates this anniversary as "Canberra Day" each year on the third Monday of March.[2]
The word Canberra is said to be derived from the various renditions into written English of the name of the indigenous people of the area, the Ngambri, one of a number of family groups that make up the Ngunnawal nation. The first non-Aboriginal landowner, Joshua John Moore, named his property "Canberry Station" and it was thus shown on the 1837 survey of the area conducted by James Larmer. Moore's name was one of the first English transcriptions of Ngambri. It has been suggested that Canberry was named after an English place name but no evidence, including any suggestion of a British locality connected with Moore, has been put forward for this view.
Explanations have been put forward that the name means 'meeting place' in the Ngunnawal language, with reference to the various transcriptions of Kambera (alternatively spelt Kamberra, Nganbra or Nganbirra). Alternatively the name was apparently used as a reference to corroborees held during the seasonal migration of the Ngunawal people to feast on the Bogong moths that pass through the region each summer. Another explanation sometimes given, but less commonly accepted, is that the word comes from an Aboriginal word "Nganbra" meaning "hollow between a woman's breasts", and refers to the plain between Mount Ainslie and Black Mountain.
The Molonglo River was recorded as the "Yeal-am-bid-gie" in 1820 by the explorer Charles Throsby. This was probably the collective Aboriginal name for the river. The Moolinggolah people of the district around Captains Flat probably gave the Molonglo its name. Where the river flowed through what is now Canberra, it was probably known after the Ngambri people, transcribed as Kembury, Canberry, and other transcription variations.
[edit] Development and growth
Canberra's growth over the first few decades was slow, and Canberra was indeed far more a small country town than a capital before World War II. It was noted for being more trees and fields than houses. Cattle grazing near Parliament House was a common occurrence, something which amazed General Macarthur when he visited Canberra during World War II.
King O'Malley drove the first survey peg in the Canberra area on February 20, 1913 to mark commencement of work on the new city. On 12 March 1913, the city was officially given its name by Lady Denman, the wife of the then Governor-General Lord Denman at a ceremony at Kurrajong Hill, which has since become Capital Hill and the site of the present Parliament House.
Building of the capital began in what is now North and South Canberra. The pace was slower than expected because of the outbreak of World War I in 1914 and a dispute between Griffin and Federal government bureaucrats. In 1917, a Royal Commission determined that these individuals had undermined Griffin's authority by supplying false data to him, which he had used in carrying out his work. Ultimately, Griffin resigned from the Canberra design project in 1920, when he discovered that several of these bureaucrats had been appointed to the Federal Capital Advisory Committee formed to oversee Canberra's construction.
Initially almost all construction work in the Capital was undertaken by the Government. Government built housing, required to house the public servants transferred from Melbourne, formed the basis for Canberra's first suburbs. The suburbs that were slowly built over the next several years included Parkes, Barton, Kingston, Manuka, Braddon and Reid. These suburbs often had other names - for instance, Kingston was originally known as Eastlake - before a formal renaming procedure took place in 1928. They were built largely in accordance to Walter Burley Griffin's designs for Canberra. The men who constructed these suburbs lived in a series of worker's camps, which consisted of tents and some brick cottages. Building materials were obtained from quarries in the North Canberra area. A temporary railroad was used to shift materials.
The rail line between Canberra and Queanbeyan was constructed and opened for industrial use on May 25, 1914. It was later made available for public use in 1924. A formal foundation stone for the city was laid by the future Edward VIII on June 21, 1920. Government House in Yarralumla, the Prime Minister's Lodge, and what is now called the old Parliament House, were also built during this time.
An internment camp for German World War I prisoners-of-war was established in 1918 in Canberra's eastern outskirts, in what is now Fyshwick. This camp instead housed mainly civilian internees transferred there from other locations such as Bourke, NSW between 1918 and 1919. It then became a worker's camp and residential area. In later years , this was closed down, and the roads that were used to service the camp became the first streets in Fyshwick.
The first blocks of land for residential and business use were sold by auction in December 12, 1924. The residents of these buildings went through a gruelling start to their occupancy when a flood struck the Canberra area in February 1925. The flood came as the result of the Molonglo River bursting its banks. The flooding threatened or damaged many buildings, and some drownings resulted. However, the community recovered.
Canberra's first school, Telopea Park School, had already been opened in 1923. Public transport became available in July 1925 and two shopping areas were established at Manuka and Kingston in 1925.
1927 saw a movie theatre being opened at Manuka and a Territory police force established. Also in 1927, the city centre was officially established. It was meant to be called Civic Centre, but then Prime Minister Stanley Bruce vetoed the idea and it became officially known as City Centre. However, City Centre is still commonly referred to as "Civic".
But 1927's most significant event was the opening of the provisional Parliament House (now known as the old Parliament House) on May 9, 1927. On this date also, Melbourne ceased being the national capital and seat of government and Canberra assumed this role. Amongst the first legislation dealt with in the new parliament house was an act to repeal O'Malley's prohibition laws. This took effect in 1928.
Canberra's workforce did not escape the Depression when it arrived in 1929. In 1930, 1800 labour force workers and about one seventh of Public Service staff in Canberra were retrenched. In the early 1930s, its growth ground to a complete halt, with even the government agency supervising its development being abolished for a time.
Some major construction projects planned for the capital, including Anglican and Roman Catholic cathedrals, were not undertaken due to funds for their planned construction being diverted for relief of the depression. Having lost impetus as the city was being developed in the early years, neither denomination has built a major national centre of worship in the capital.
However, the community continued to develop if not to grow, with the establishment of community facilities, such as a radio station (2CA) in 1931, which was initially run from a shop in the Kingston area. The planning and building of the Australian War Memorial under the supervision of war historian C.E.W Bean also began at this time. The memorial was eventually completed in 1941, and was opened on November 11 of that year.
Embassies and High Commissions began to establish themselves in Canberra during the 1930s. The United Kingdom appointed their first High Commissioner to Australia in 1936. Canada appointed a representative in 1937 and the United States of America opened a mission in 1939 with their first envoy presenting his credentials in 1940. The United States was the first mission to build its own chancery in 1943. In 1946 Australia and the US raised the rank of representatives exchanged by the two countries to that of Ambassador; the American Embassy thus becoming the first embassy to be established in Canberra. Other countries, such as Sweden, followed soon afterwards.
For all this, Canberra remained a small country town prior to World War II, far more rural than urban in its nature and size, with little to mark it as Australia's capital other than its Parliament House and the developing War Memorial. Its social centre remained the Kingston/Manuka area.
[edit] Post World War II
During and after World War II, Canberra began to grow more rapidly. The Australian War Memorial was opened in 1941, and the Australian National University in 1946.
Wartime conditions emphasied the need for an airport. On April 1, 1940, a military air base, RAAF Station Canberra, was established on a flat plain between Canberra and Queanbeyan. Later, this was renamed RAAF Fairbairn in memory of the Minister for Air, James V Fairbairn, who was killed with a number of other ministers and officials when an aircraft crashed into a nearby hill in dense fog on 13 August 1940. Canberra Airport was constructed in the 1960s, the military base and commercial airport sharing the same runway.
Parts of Canberra were the backdrop for Cold War espionage activity, highlighted during the 1954 Petrov Affair when a Soviet Union spy defected to Australia. Telopea Park in south Canberra was a known drop-off point for KGB spies based at the nearby USSR Embassy. This embassy was constantly monitored by ASIO agents based in the Kingston Hotel located across the street. There was also an ASIO listening post on the grounds of Canberra Grammar School. In 1991, with the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union, the embassy grounds became the Russian Embassy.
In March 1958 the National Capital Development Commission (NCDC) took over the planning and construction of Canberra. Under the control of the NCDC new districts, such as Woden and Tuggeranong, were established and slowly developed throughout the 1960s and 1970s to accommodate a growing population. The original design for Canberra did not extend beyond the central suburbs, and thus it was possible to design them to take better advantage of the land contours. Woden was established in 1964, Belconnen in 1967 and Tuggeranong in 1973. These additional districts helped to encourage large population growth between 1960 and 1975.
The construction of Lake Burley Griffin in central Canberra was started in the early 1960s. Based largely on Walter Burley Griffin's original plans. A move to name it Lake Menzies, after the then Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies, was vetoed by Menzies himself. The lake was formed by Scrivener Dam, named after Charles Scrivener located at what is now the western end of Lake Burley Griffin. The dam was completed in 1963, and its valves closed on September 20, 1963, to allow the lake to form. However, the area was in drought at the time and the lake did not actually fill until April 1964 when the drought broke. This allowed the first event scheduled for the lake, a rowing championship, to take place. In 1970, the Captain Cook Fountain/Memorial Jet was added, as part of the celebrations held that year to mark the bicentenarary of the discovery of Australia's east coast by Captain James Cook.
In 1978, Bruce Stadium was opened. The High Court was formally opened in 1980 and the National Gallery of Australia in 1982.
In 9 May 1988, a new larger Parliament House was opened on Capital Hill in State Circle, Parkes as part of Australia's bicentenary celebrations, and the Federal Parliament moved there from the provisional (60 years!) parliament house.
In December, 1988, the Australian Capital Territory was granted full self-government when an Act passed by Federal Parliament that made the Territory a body politic under the Crown was signed by Elizabeth II. On 11 May 1989, following the elections earlier that year, a 17-member Legislative Assembly sat at its offices in London Circuit, Civic. The first government was led by the Chief Minister Rosemary Follett.
[edit] 21st century
In 2000, several Sydney 2000 soccer games were played at Bruce Stadium.
In 2001, the National Museum of Australia was opened. An unfortunate incident occurred in 1997 in which a local Canberra girl, Katie Bender, was killed by flying debris when the disused former Royal Canberra Hospital was demolished by explosion to make way for the new museum. A small memorial was erected to her memory at the spot at Lake Burley Griffin where she died.
On January 18, 2003, bushfires that had been burning in the remote wilderness west of Canberra broke containment lines and engulfed some of Canberra. 500 homes where destroyed before a change in the weather brought the fire under control. The suburb of Duffy was hit especially hard, with some 200 homes destroyed. Four people died in the fire and many more were injured.
The development of Canberra is ongoing. Major new works under construction in recent years include the Gungahlin Town Centre, City West Precinct and the Kingston Foreshores Development. On March 5, 2004, the Canberra Spatial plan for Canberra's future development was released.Canberra spatial plan As of 2005 plans are under development for a new Canberra district to be situated west of Lake Burley Griffin on land vacated by a burned pine plantation.
